| Animal cruelty charges filed against Issaquah dog breeder
Charges were recently filed against an Issaquah woman accused of hording 100 show dogs at her home and a home in Burien. ". Interviewed by police, Hamilton's husband said he and his wife were using the basement as a shelter for old breeding or show dogs, and that he owned most of the dogs for their entire lives, according to charging documents. The man went on to admit that he had 25 to 30 dogs at the Issaquah home, Pavlovich told the court. They shot a short video of the scene and left. King County prosecutors contend Margaret Ann Hamilton horded 100 breeding and show dogs housed in squalid conditions at homes in Burien and Issaquah. Following a tip from an animal welfare group, King County Sheriff's Office animal control officers raided the homes and discovered the dogs living in stacked animal carriers covered in feces and hair. Pavlovich noted four dogs were found in a van parked in the home's garage. "Margi Hamilton had hidden them there prior to our arrival because she planned on showing them at a dog show in Enumclaw over the upcoming weekend and feared that we will certainly be taking them," the detective told the court. Twelve of the dogs removed from the house were rushed to a veterinary hospital in need of immediate care. Investigators arrived at the home to find 38 dogs housed in travel crates, the detective continued. Hamilton's husband was found dead of natural causes three weeks after the dogs were removed from both homes. Hamilton has been charged with two counts of second-degree animal cruelty. According to charging documents, officers retrieved 62 dogs from the home. Writing the court, King County Sheriff's Office Detective John K. All of the dogs recovered had been bred or bought by Hamilton and her husband as show dogs. The detective noted Hamilton continued to claim she was properly caring for the dogs while officers were removing them from her home. The conditions matched those described by Pasado's Safe Haven workers, according to charging documents. "Hoarding is likely a factor in what was occurring as the Hamiltons were clearly unable to part with dogs that they had collected through the years, even after the dogs were past show or breeding age," the detective told the court. In September, an anonymous caller told staff at Pasado's Safe Haven animal shelter Hamilton, 69, was hording dogs at a Burien home owned by her brother-in-law. Speaking with investigators, the Burien home's owner - a kennel operator since at least the early 1980s, and former purebred breeder - claimed only four Chihuahuas were in the house, Pavlovich told the court. Having been contacted by the anti-animal cruelty workers, King County Sheriff's Office and Burien animal control officers launched an investigation in early October. Arriving at the scene, investigators noted signs of hoarding - extensive clutter and debris strewn throughout the property, as well as items stacked floor to ceiling in every room of the home. |
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Animal cruelty charges filed against Issaquah dog breeder
